As I indicated in my “About” page, historically I’ve looked at blogging as something done by people with too much time on their hands. So much of what I’ve seen on social media today focuses on what someone ate for dinner, promotes the latest cute kitten video, or highlights our endless fascination with celebrity. So why am I now doing a blog?
Over the past few years, I’ve spent a lot of time reading about the history of the United States trying to answer the question “How have we arrived at this specific point in time?”. In particular, I’m increasingly troubled by the perception that, somewhere along the line, we’ve lost our willingness as a people to create a better society for all our people. At all levels, we seem bogged down in endless debates about perceived past failures rather than in creating a collective vision for the future.
This is not to say that we shouldn’t learn from our past mistakes. As the saying goes, those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it. However, having said that, we shouldn’t use our past mistakes as an excuse to be afraid of the future.
I’ve said previously that, as a society, we should never be afraid to lead but that we should never lead out of fear. In my opinion, too many of our leaders in both the private and public sectors are using people’s fear of past failures (real or perceived) to prevent our society from moving forward into the future. What’s even more troubling to me is that a majority of people seem willing to accept this viewpoint as justification for a pessimistic “zero sum” perception of our future (i.e. one person’s gain is another person’s loss).
How did we get to this point? And more importantly, what can we do to change this perception? That is what this series of posts within the category “America’s Future” hopes to answer. But it’s only with your help that answers can truly be found. That’s why I ask that, as I struggle to piece together these answers, you the reader will provide me with your feedback and thoughts. Perhaps together we can make some small difference!
As always, your feedback is appreciated!
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